A few things to consider about what's happening. 1) Although jobs are disappearing today, there are many more coming as stores open. WFM is a mature retail company that will not stop opening stores; it's their meal ticket to continuing to grow overall profits. So if possible you can hang in there in order to go for new positions/promotions. Even if WFM totally wipes out you'll have better leverage based on your past experience. 2) The reason WFM is in this predicament is competition. Consider calling them! Our industry has increasingly focused on quality products and knowledgable staff. The days of "I want cheap crap" are fading. Big box hyper-retailers are suffering due to bad service and deplorable working conditions. The growing upstarts who are eating WFM's lunch (Sprouts, Fresh Thyme, Natural Grocers, TJs, etc.) would be VERY happy to have you because they know you, as a WFM TM, are probably pretty good at your job! The organic/natural food industry is still booming, so no matter what happens with WFM, continue to work hard and excel at your craft and you'll get through this. Sorry to give a motivational speech, but I was hit hard by 2009 so I know this feeling very well. I do enjoy WFM, but I enjoy the people I've worked with even more and I'm very pained to see this happening. Good luck to all.
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This is so minor in the grand scheme of things. Target SHUT all their Canada stores, overnight. From what I'm seeing this is like 1-2 TMs per store, max.
I agree. There is so much bloat in some stores that for me this is a miracle that's it's only happening now. I know of many grocery teams that are so heavy on leadership, supervisors, and buyers that they can't afford to hire part-time team members and constantly are out of stock of the most in-demand items. They have pallets of backstock when they get deliveries 5-7 times a week and pallets that aren't worked to shelf due to having no labor. I personally get at least 3 calls a week from neighboring stores to supply them with products that we have warehoused that they "forgot to order". At what point does somebody higher up say to this team, "Your structure is what's causing these issues and we're going to re-evaluate your management"? Whole Foods needs to be less hands off and way more hands on with their teams to be competitive.
Thank you.
It's the people I work with who make my job worth working. And too may of my friends are at risk because of this latest action for me to be happy with the company for doing what they think they had to do. There are certainly other ways for them to have cut their costs without cutting so many jobs and so many wages. It's hard because as much as I've enjoyed my time there, that joy is coming to an end, and I'm considering coming elsewhere.
In the grocery world, I really do feel like we have the best people working under the roofs. Thoughtful, smart, creative people. These TMs work their tails off.